Education
Overcrowding in East Side public schools threatens to deny a generation of children their constitutional right to a "
sound basic education." We must make more school seats available now, build more schools to keep up with current development, and investigate new solutions for building educational infrastructure.
I have a strong commitment to public education that stems from being a graduate of the
Bronx High School of Science, State University of New York's
University at Albany and
University at Buffalo Law School. I helped create Community Board 8’s Youth and Education Committee, identified a
Free Yellow Bus Program for local youth service providers, and created an internship program to better serve the youth and education needs of our community. As your Council member I will continue to fight for increased funding for youth services and education.
UPPER EAST SIDE — Local schools are set to get $1 million for more laptops and new green roofs, thanks to votes from their neighbors.
The funds have been earmarked for 10 local schools, after about 2,000 residents voted on how they believe $1 million from City Councilman Ben Kallos'participatory budgeting program should be spent.
The Manhattan New School/P.S. 290, at 311 E. 82nd St., will get $500,000 to finish its green roof, which school officials call a "desperately needed playspace." The school won $500,000 for the $1 million project last spring.
Nearly 2,000 Upper East Side residents 14 and over turned out in person or online to vote on how to spend $1 million in tax dollars to improve the community as part of “Participatory Budgeting.” Residents were able to vote in the district office 7 days a week as well as at 17 mobile “pop-up” voting locations, by absentee and even online.
“Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) continue to be where residents are voting to invest their tax dollars to prepare our children for the future,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “Thank you to Participatory Budgeting Delegates for leading the process as well as residents 14 and over for voting.”
The expectation that Manhattan will have fewer students going to public schools might result in a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” worried City Councilman Ben Kallos, whose Upper East Side neighborhood is short 2,000 pre-K seats, forcing many parents to commute with their 4-year-olds in the morning rush to free programs in Lower Manhattan or pay a high price for private programs nearby.
4. A school has to be significantly overcrowded before the years-long process of building a new one can begin.
The city won’t consider building a new school until there’s a 5 percent increase in an existing school’s population, School Construction Authority president Lorraine Grillo told City Council members at budget hearings this week.
